You are sixteen, and you attend public school. Can you wear a t-shirt to school that bears a pink triangle logo and the phrase, "Make a difference?" Can you wear a t-shirt to school that has a rainbow printed on it and says "I'm gay and I'm proud"?

Webb City High School in Missouri says no; the ACLU says yes. It is suing the school on behalf of Brad Mathewson, a junior who was ordered not to come to school wearing gay rights messages on his clothing--even though, at the time of the order, the school permitted students to come to school wearing clothing with anti-gay messages (the school has since censored those messages, too).

The ACLU argues that the school is violating Mathewson's First Amendment rights, citing a 1969 Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing students free speech except in situations when administrators can prove that such speech would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school." No such interference occurred with Mathewson's clothing, which, ironically, he acquired from the Gay-Straight Alliance at his previous school.

It is important to mention that Mr. Mathewson wore the shirts in question to school several times before without causing any disruption (according to the NY Times).

I suppose we'll be hearing about him again in a few months or so, when he decides to sue because other students (yes, for the dumbassed high school dipstick contingent so prominent in every high school) make bigoted comments and creat a hostile environment for the gay student.

Whenever I read these sorts of news reports/stories (and there have been many recently that tell of school prohibitions on various forms of, to me, innocuous speech) I have but one thought:

Haven't they got anything better to do?

This type of harassement highlights what one of the problems with What's the Matter with Kansas -- Frank's book. He wants to say that the Republicans don't actually give the religious right anything for their vote -- instead using their vote to simply gain the power to cut taxes. What he misses is the total environment of bigotry that it allows to grow and disperse throughout society.

I dunno Steve; I'm not sure you can lay "an environment of bigotry" at the feet of Republicans. Imagine some kid going to high school under FDR wearing clothes that announce his homosexuality. In fact, I went to high school in the late seventies, and if kids were gay, they were deeeeeeep in the closet. Weren't no "Queer and Here" t-shirts in my California high school, despite our proximity to San Francisco, our huge stoner culture, and the flourishing early "alternative" scene.

Put more bluntly, I don't buy the contention that the environment of bigotry is growing. Think of all the social changes that have occurred in the last half-century--it's been amazing. But we can't expect the curve of increasing acceptance of racial/sexual/gender minorities to be a totally smooth upward slope. There's going to be social pushback. I think that's all this is; nothing Republican about it.

I live in Oregon, where Kerry locked up the vote. Nevertheless, our proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman passed with a very hefty lead. Not only that, I know several people (and I'm one of them) who voted FOR Bush, and AGAINST the amendment. This is the story, of course, in several other states too.

Hey, and when have we ever had a vice-president with an out lesbian daughter? A Republican, to boot!

Rose makes a good point. There is much *less* bigotry against gays than in the past (when there was very little option to live 'out' at all). Even if the gay agenda is some sort of Hegelian progress thing, it will not move in a rapid or linear fashion. There is also the consideration that the general acceptance of the gay agenda may currently be out of equilibrium and reach a point of maximum pendulum swing only to move back from its current level.

Interesting, is it not, that the ACLU would jump to the defense of Mr. Mathewson's wearing of pro-gay clothing. I wonder how fast they would jump were he to be bearing a pro-Christian message. Good for the goose.....

Bring back school uniforms and dress codes, problem solved.

Whatever happened to schools being institutions of education? My children are not there to listen to someone preaching from a soapbox. I don't care about how the school administration feels about politics and I don't care if fellow students want to preach their propaganda on their shirts and I certainly do not want either party preaching their opinion to my children. My children are there to learn the basics of education. If we place every child in uniforms then kids don't get beat up because of a shirt that they wear or because someone wants to steal their shoes because they can't afford a pair that is as nice as the ones that other children wear.

Teachers need to stay focused on the material in the text books and everyone else should go home to get their group hug, my children are not in school to provide that service.